Kranjcar books his Euro place

Niko Kranjcar's Croatia booked their place in Euro 2008 yesterday despite a defeat to Macedonia - has anyone seen the footage of the game? Seeing the weather and the state of the pitch was a throwback to the Sunday league football games many of us used to play in as kids...

We all know the importance of Kranjcar to Pompey, but his importance to Croatia is as great, in fact probably more so, I for one cannot wait to see him strutting his stuff against Europe's finest next summer.

So at least one Pompey star is now assured of a placed at Euro 2008 - only time will tell how 'hard' Croatia will try on Wednesday against England at Wembley, but should England get the point minimum that we need then perhaps several Pompey stars could be joining him too with England?

Should this come off - which it should now - then David James and Sol Campbell are the two most likely to join him - despite their ages being of concern for some to be used against them. Maybe Spineless Steve will discard the pair again, with them having 'served a purpose' but although we cannot take their inclusion as a given, or for granted we should not write this off just yet...

Glen Johnson has a fantastic chance with outside - although unlikely - chances for Sean Davis, Matty Taylor and dare I say it Dave Nugent...

Either way whatever happens lets hope that the international scene with the trip to Austria and Switzerland for whoever does go will not be the only ventures into Europe that our Pompey players will be having in 2008!

PLAY UP POMPEY!

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Your Comments (oldest first)

i really have very rarely seen any pitches in as bad a condition as that one - it was awful! Glen johnso for england? in fact, if matty can get back in the pompey team, then we could be looking at 4/5 of pompeys possible back 5 in the england team!

it was awful wasnt it carpet, did you see the state of the goalmouth - the croatian keeper was coated in mud... teams always want to beat england at wembley - new or old - so slaven bilic will want his troops to do just that, but at the same time so many have the kind of respect for england that would also want us to get through...

good luck to krunchie and croatia in euro 2008, more often than not they flatter to decieve when they make it through to the finals dont they, but if they get it right they could do very well - and krunchie, along with the arsenal fella will have a big part to play...

and there is another croatian being touted as one of the brightes european propects - playing at dynamo zagreb, i think - that someone has mentioned on this site before, and i have seen it being suggested he is inline for a £15 mllion move to arsnal - croatia really do have some good prospects for the future!

Krunchie is a decent player in a decent 'TEAM' no superstars now that Prosenecki, Bilic and Suker have gone, but they tend to go out and do a good job, last night excepted.
He deserves to show his skills on the bigger stage, and i will be proud of him representing the mighty Pompey.

I hope Krunchy has a crackin' Euro Finals as long as we have him on a very long contract before he goes and also as long as he doesn't pop up in the last minute on Wednesday night and slot in the winner ala Israel & Italy .. Interestingly Pompey had a player at Euro 2004 .. anybody remember who it was ??

mornar, looked a world beater more often than not in pre season... but as you say Owens didnt quite ever cut it when it counted did he. he scored a few goals tho didnt he, 1 against sunderland i think when matty taylor scored his wonder strike in the 4-1 win! he looked like he was going to leave a couple of times didnt he but kept coming back again for more. he also scored against england in a friendly once didnt he, i think we won 3-1 or 3-2?

I think it was Dario Silva who scored when Matty scored his goal, i think Mornar was out on loan by then, he scored in that thriller at White Hart Lane that we lost in the last second to a goal by Poyet.
Dave where are you when we need you!!

yep i think you are right actually and it was another that 'struggled' zvonimir vukic who scored one goal that day, along with matty taylor with 2 and as you say dario silva - he scored that cracker against charlton at fratton in a 2-1 defeat didnt he, what a strike from a tight angle! i still remember thinking 'what the hell are you thinking of mate' when he lined up the shot... but still celebrated as if i had faith in him all along after :-)

The cracker against Charlton was the great D'Alessandro, Vukic didnt score for us did he?
Dave we need you to confirm these details, where are you mate are you still celebrating in Tel Aviv or dancing in Rome.

no not that cracker, d'alessandro cracker was at the valley, from the edge of the box when we lost 2-1, i meant the cracker from near enough the touchline when we lost 2-1 at fratton - a game that was also live on sky, dennis rommedahl scored the winner in that game... im 100%, no to ways about it sure on the vukic scoring against sunderland issue - initially i thought it might have been mornar, but now im certain it was vukic - who equalised for us after sunderland took and early lead.

kranjcar is very important player in Croatia squad but not like eduardo or modric, he is not so good in national team like in Portsmouth,,, Mornar never played important role in national squad, he played but not so often. Main players now in this moment are: N.Kovac(hard working midfilder and captain), his brother Robert Kovac, Eduardo, Dario Srna, Modric (all round player, very very good player), Niko Kranjcar, Petric, Corluka and very good goalkeeper Pletikosa..just watch Modric,he is future for Croatia..

maybe that was the thinking behind him signing for pompey eh mate? thanks for the insight into croatia football as always - do keep this coming as you have rarely - if ever! - been wrong with what you have said, and how players should be signed by english clubs - and probably will one day. put in a good word about pompey for some of them for us will you :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nUVjWuOOWs&feature=related
watch this..world cup in Germany.. Croatia vs Brazil
croatia have only 4,5 milions citizens but one big heart
for POMPEYRUG-- in Croatia everybody who is football know about pompey, after this guys like Prosinecki, Mornar, Zivkovic and now Niko played or play in Portsmouth... after match against Macedonia Niko said for Croa.national tv how great club Portsmouth is..that is enough

Andy dont mention Zivkovic, all the others we have no problem with but Boris did not endear himself to us.
Especially when we were beaten by the scum and he had a complete mare, everyones fault but his.

players just cannot help falling in love with this club when they sign can they - which always helps us! the word 'hate' is strong so i will go with 'dislike' but as much as i rarely dislike a pompey player ive probably not disliked one as much as i did zivkovic... he came with such a great histroy but he never showed anything for us did he and had no commitment for the cause whatsoever - ive never, ever seen a professional football pull out of so many challenges as i had this fella - shocking, truely shocking!

Yea, zivkovic is i really weird player, in the sense I have never known him to do anything special but he was the captain of croatia in 2004 (i believe, and when they were sucking) and he has played for some bigger clubs. Im an underdog kinda guy so my favorite Croat at the moment is Dario Srna. He plays right wingback/midfield, hes really good in dead ball situations, but unfortunately he's been buried in Shakhtar Donetsk, theyre not letting go anywhere

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